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Raising the standard: using ISO 9000 to

improve performance
Concrete Producer, The , May, 2005 by Rick Yelton
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When it comes to dealing with third-party scrutiny, J.D. Collins is an expert. During the college
basketball season, he enjoys the rigors and responsibility being of an NCAA basketball official.
This spring, Collins traveled the country refereeing March Madness.

To be successful in his part-time avocation, Collins has learned the value in listening to both
peers and customers (coaches) in learning how to be a better official. Every action and decision
becomes a potential discussion point from each person's perspective, says Collins.

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So it didn't surprise his fellow managers at Hartford Concrete Products in Hartford City, Ind.,
when his commitment to self-improvement spread to the precast business. The road to self-
improvement was paved when Collins investigated the best method to certify his operation for
quality. We were looking for an objective method that would help us improve our processes,
products, and relations with our business partners, he says.

ISO certification wasn't Collins' first choice. I didn't know anything about the ISO process until
a customer asked us about 11 years ago whether we would consider going through the process,
says Collins, Hartford Concrete's president and CEO. He initially downplayed the suggestion.
But after some discussion with fellow managers, Collins and his team began the trek of third-
party approval of self-improvement.

Collins at first thought the ISO effort would be a sales and marketing tool. But after preparing
the operations manual and completing their first ISO audit, Collins says the process was much
more than window dressing for a sales brochure. The principles of process improvement have
greatly directed every aspect of our business, he says.

Avoiding the cost of rework

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Raising the standard: using ISO 9000 to improve performance | Concrete Producer, The | ... Page 2 of 3

Half a continent away, Terry MacDow, general manager of The Shaw Group's brick and block
division in Nova Scotia, shares a similar view of his company's involvement in the ISO
certification process. As general manager of one clay brick plant and two concrete block plants
for one of eastern Canada's largest material suppliers, MacDow has come to relay on his
company's ISO process as a management tool to help insure that quality permeates all
endeavors.

MacDow began the ISO process about six years ago to validate his brick products so they would
be accepted for exports. We ship a small percentage of our clay bricks to Japan and China, says
MacDow. ISO certification does carry influence in the international market.

But MacDow and his team found the effect of continuous improvement was so dramatic in the
brick operation, he expanded the process improvement program to the company's two block
operations. A fellow manager has since applied the ISO process to the company's concrete pipe
plant.

MacDow also finds ISO certification is now part of the producer's business operation rather
than a marketing logo. While our domestic customers may know we are ISO certified, they
know Shaw as a well-respected producer here in Canada's maritime provinces, says MacDow.
The process has involved our employees in improving our company.

It must work. This January, The Shaw Group was again selected as one of Canada's 50 Best
Managed Companies. This is the fourth successive year The Shaw Group has earned this
designation.

Once considered to be a marketing tool to encourage international business, many producers

have been slow to adopt the formalized approach of ISO continuous quality improvement. Only
a handful of producers have followed the path paved by Collins at Hartford Products and
MacDow at Shaw. In the ready-mixed business, only Scott Hammersley at Newington
Concrete, Newington, Va., and Nick Maloof at Atlanta-based Thomas Concrete have embraced
ISO 9000.

Little acceptance

Why has the concrete industry been so slow to accept the path of self-administered, third-party
certification? Long-time concrete industry participant Ray Hays suggests one main reason why
ISO 9000 has yet to take hold in the construction industry: Many consultants and testing
agencies that deal with solving our industry's problems for a living would be out of business. If
producers and contractors established systems that created defect-free products, who would
need the testing? asks Hays.

According to Hays, now a retired consultant in Birmingham, Ala., the U.S. construction
industry has failed to keep pace with using management techniques that provide the customer
with both cost and schedule control. Construction projects are often started without a clear
definition of who does what, he says.

Hays has the perspective to know. Before retired from Rust Engineering Co., an internationally
respected contractor, he had been involved in many projects. While we didn't have the formal
approach that an ISO certification offers, Rust was one of the first engineering firms to have a

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Raising the standard: using ISO 9000 to improve performance | Concrete Producer, The | ... Page 3 of 3

quality control division that reported to top management on problems in the field, says Hays.

More recently, he has been championing the values of an ISO approach to construction while
serving on ACI 121, Quality Management System for Concrete Construction. He believes the
requirements of the ISO/ANSI/ASQ 9001: 2000 Standard provide a simple way to manage
projects that will cut the rework cost and save time.

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